Elizabeth Taylor: 10 films to remember her

Elizabeth Taylor is dead. That doesn’t mean much to a contemporary audience, but her passing marks another close to Hollywood’s golden era.

Taylor came along when the studio system still ruled, when stars were tied to contracts that had them working steadily in projects that, in many cases, were not of their choosing. But she was among those who, as the business changed, were able to make their own way. And, indeed, she may not always make better films — ever see “Cleopatra”? — but she sure got paid better.

And her mistakes were, like her many marriages, all her own. For if there was anything that this violet-eyed beauty was known for besides her stardom and her breasts, it was her her eight marriages (twice to Richard Burton).

But she leaves behind a decent body of work as compensation. Among my favorites:

“Lassie Come Home” (1943): Hardly a preteen, Taylor shows promise as a beauty, if not a thespian.

“National Velvet” (1944): Paired with Mickey Rooney, Taylor overshadows the horse.

“A Place in the Sun” (1951): Montgomery Clift kills for her. Who wouldn’t?

“Elephant Walk” (1954): One of the great bad films of the mid-‘50s. Great garbage, and Taylor shines.

“Giant” (1956): Rock Hudson and James Dean and Taylor. Who are you going to look at?

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958): As Maggie the Cat,Taylor spends most of the movie in her slip. It almost keeps you from noticing that she’s learning to act.

“Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959): Again with Clift, and the great katharine Hepburn, Taylor holds her own. And, then, there’s the swimsuit scene.

“Butterfield 8” (1960): The role for which Taylor won her first Oscar.

“Cleopatra” (1963): More garbage, but classically, gloriously so.

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966): Her great performance, one that gives you an idea of what it might be like to have married her.

Below : The original trailer for “Suddenly, Last Summer.”